"Google is reportedly building an Amazon Echo rival"

Google executives have seen and heard all the positive buzz around Amazon’s Echo speaker, and now the company is said to be preparing a similar product for the home. The Information is reporting on a “secret Google project to create a competitor to Amazon’s echo,” though the story offers no details on the product’s features, nor potential pricing or any release timeframe. The nugget is part of a report that details a “stalled” and struggling Nest, the company that Google acquired in 2014.

It’s shocking to me, given the success Amazon has had with the Echo, that competitors like Apple and Google have waited so long to release something similar and getting the Nest team onboard seems like a slam dunk. Strange choice there.